Cheese glorious cheese!

As a wine lover (though my friends prefer to call me a “wine snob”) and former pasta addict, I’m right at home in Lidia’s Italy. Airing on MPT Saturdays at 3 p.m., Lidia Bastianich brings hearty Italian cuisine to the screen with ease.

Why do I love Lidia’s Italy? Let me count the ways. She is real, she is comfortable and she is extremely likeable. Watching her show is like coming home to a warm hug and a plate of love.

So on Saturday afternoons while folding laundry and snacking on another insipid rice cake, I let Lidia take me away to a magical place overflowing with wine, cheese and pasta. As a health nut with food intolerances and celiac disease, my food indulgence is limited, so I let Lidia tantalize (and torment) my taste buds as often as I can.

Back to cheese and pasta! These two ingredients make a command performance in so many of Lidia’s dreamy dishes. Some chefs sprinkle a pinch or two of parmesan over a pasta dish like a well-choreographed ballet, but Lidia conducts an orchestra of cheese, a bursting symphony for your senses. She does not hold back—and why should she? This is living! Sure, she makes plenty of lighter style fish and chicken dishes, but I like to focus on the cheese. Glorious cheese!

A pro at blending ingredients, Lidia also has an instinctive way of blending her family into the show. On any given Saturday you might get to know her adorable granddaughter Olivia who helps her make sweet treats and tortellini, or meet her son, Joseph, the wine connoisseur who comes in at just the right time to share a rich bottle of Barolo or Chianti with his mom. I am hooked! Is it the wine, the cheese or the pasta? Not sure. I think it’s a combination of all three, and a place to call home for a little while.


Leslie Adler
Marketing Manager, Education Projects